Skip to content
LoserKid Pinball Podcast
LoserKid Pinball Podcast
200 episodes tracked since 2019 about →
Copied!

Ep 54: The Real VonTökkentäkker with Jack Haeger and David Fix

PodcastAnalysis updated 2d ago1 hr 22 min listen
From the creator

From 1980s Williams to modern day pinball, Jack has quite the impressive resume. So come join us as we talk: Pirates, Star Wars, and red eyes.

Listen on LoserKid Pinball Podcast

Highlights

  • Jack Hager was brought to Williams Electronics around 1980 after being recommended by Playboy art director Carrick Pope, initially to help with video game development including Joust
  • Jack Hager contributed significantly to Sinistar's design, creating gradient palettes to simulate 3D effects and animating the Sinistar character's facial features, which led to speech animation capabilities
  • Jack Hager left Williams for Silicon Valley in 1981-1982 to work as art director for the Amiga computer project, which was purchased by Commodore
  • Jack Hager personally worked with Andy Warhol to teach him the Amiga computer at Warhol's Factory studio in New York, and was present when Warhol created the images later discovered by Carnegie Mellon University
  • A pinball designer under contract with Williams created the World Tour concept, which Williams declined, leading the designer to take the artwork to Alvin G. and Company where it became Al's Garage Band goes on a World Tour
  • Jack Hager designed pinball concepts like 'Pirate Island' and 'Hey Bartender' in the mid-1980s for Williams, constrained by a requirement to fit 13 letters for playfield lights
  • Jack Hager later became art director at Williams Bally Midway and was involved in developing the digitization process that led to Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam
  • Josh Kugler from American Pinball showed Jack Haeger Hey Bartender artwork (with the beer stein feature) to the team, which influenced their decision to hire him
  • Jack Hager has recently joined American Pinball as a creative hire and brought historical pinball design concepts to the team

Notable quotes

“Run, coward, run!”
“I sat next to Andy as he created them. There was a Campbell soup can, there was a banana, there was a self-portrait, and he even signed each one with the mouse.”
Jack Hager
“There was a lot of cross-fertilization that took the industry to great heights.”
Jack Hager
“Jack came across as being the guy that we needed.”
“I studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago back in the late 70s, early 80s, studying fine art, much classical painting techniques and illustration.”
Jack Hager

Entities

  • Alvin G. and Company· company
  • American Pinball· company
  • Commodore Computers· company
  • Williams Electronics· company
  • Carnival· game
  • Hey Bartender· game
  • Mortal Kombat· game
  • NBA Jam· game
  • Pirate Island· game
  • Sinistar· game
  • Insert Coin· media
  • Pinball News· media
  • Andy Warhol· person
  • David Fix· person
  • Eugene Jarvis· person
  • Jack Hager· person
  • John Newcomer· person
  • Josh Kugler· person
  • Ken Fedesna· person
  • Python Anghelo· person
  • Amiga· product

More from LoserKid Pinball Podcast

→ All content from LoserKid Pinball Podcast
Contact us about this coverage